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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

lchic - 09:15pm May 15, 2002 EST (#2236 of 2251)

A sobering thought

lchic - 10:00pm May 15, 2002 EST (#2237 of 2251)

Returning to the gift - daily - of $10,000,000 to Israel:

It equates to 250,000 hours at a basic $4 per hour
That's equivalent to three American working lifetimes (on base-basic pay) ... per day - approximately 1100 working lifetimes per year ... the gift from the USA to Israel ... who in turn have NO sense of the value of money, squandering and vandalising property!

Further thought:
How many babies, come into it, with a CIA intrinsic pedigree?!?
First words - "I am a CIA baby!"

lchic - 10:19pm May 15, 2002 EST (#2238 of 2251)

Theodore Roosevelt is the only 20th century president to join Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln on Mount Rushmore.

Has the quality been so diluted over the century?

almarst2020 - 11:02pm May 15, 2002 EST (#2239 of 2251)

http://www.aclu.org/echelonwatch/

lchic - 02:40am May 16, 2002 EST (#2240 of 2251)

data gathering
information gathering
intelligence gathering

raises the question ... when does information become intelligence

Notice the lead article today

Bush was 'told' planes would be hijacked - August - by Bin Laden (from a family Bush knew well)

So was this 'information' or was it 'intelligence' ?

Is everthing 'information' ... only becoming intelligence when an 'intelligent' mind manipulated the information to look for best/worst senario potential outcomes. From 'family' intelligence should Bush (american people in the know) have known more about the binLaden mindstate than they seemed to have known?

~~~~~~~~~

Back to Camp X-ray .... Just wondering how many times the occupants have been to the toilet since my postings on this subject above, and what the interim cost has been ... that's 2 guards per toilet trip with shackled prisoner .... are many volunteering for toilet-monitor jobs ?

lchic - 02:49am May 16, 2002 EST (#2241 of 2251)

StarWars
Americans are a push-over .. tripped on a dragged net!
"Just the facts Marm" ... "Empty your piggybank here - or walk the green mile!"
"What about my aged-security?"
"Marm the way we're going you won't need any"
More in sorrow than in anger, Mr Putin described the US move as a mistake.

lchic - 02:55pm May 16, 2002 EST (#2242 of 2251)

Is the model of US-Government in need of revision. It seems weird (from the outside) to have a country where the whole basket of foreign policy/security are the responsibility of the non-elected ... distanced from Congress ... the House of the People.

Exactly what does the title 'Security Advisor' ... mean. Who is being advised? If that under the subject of advice pertains the the body of the people .... how would the people regulate and check that the 'advisor' was functioning.

It does seem 'weird' that the President has his own handpicked click who may not have backgrounds that would let them hold equivalent positions in elsewhere countries.

What do regular Americans think about this - any articles covering it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/16/politics/16CND-INQU.html

lchic - 02:58pm May 16, 2002 EST (#2243 of 2251)

On this matter - just supposing 'the people' looked and weren't happy with the current model - how would 'the people' demonstrate their displeasure?

lchic - 03:11pm May 16, 2002 EST (#2244 of 2251)

Take the words anti-semetic (etc) out of the language for a while!
And delete them from USA media reporting.
They don't figure in the MEast analysis.
The way 'others' from 'elsewhere' look at the issue is simply via the dynamics of groups of people who 'grind and bump' against each other.
People react to the 'fairness' of a situation, watching and commenting on interactions.
The words 'anti-semetic' may be a part of, and used in, the US culture ... but ... elsewhere they hardly existed in current culture phraseology.
Their blanket usage blinds the US-media to the real issues and happenings.
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=anti-semitic&r=3

lchic - 03:16pm May 16, 2002 EST (#2245 of 2251)

National States look to newcomers 'integrating' into their culture. Failure to do so causes frictions as the new and original peoples bed-down-together. There are great movements of peoples displaced through war and unrest ... a question to ask is
How better could world bodies assist in creating better situations in their homeland countries to lessen displacement.

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